Where will all the cars go?

Forest City Ratner Vice President Jim Stuckey admitted this week that the proposed Nets arena no longer includes a controversial, 1,100- space underground parking garage.

Stuckey told anti-project blogger Norman Oder that instead of an underground public garage, the plan now calls for a loading area and small secured parking lot for team officials and arena employees.

The decision to scrap the subterranean lot was seen by some as a concession to critics who slammed it as a security risk.

The current design still includes indoor parking garages throughout the development that will hold 4,000 cars.

Also on Tuesday, Borough President Marty Markowitz told the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods — an umbrella organization of block associations and local groups — that he would invite Atlantic Yards architect Frank Gehry to Brooklyn for a cozy design session.

“Why not a give-and-take?” Markowitz said, admitting that the parts of the project he liked best were those that looked more “brownstone” and less Bilbao – where the architect designed a famously curvy Guggenheim Museum.

“I like the big stoops best,” Markowitz said, referring to a prominent feature of Gehry’s current design.

In other Ratner-related news, Councilmember Letitia James (D-Prospect Heights) pledged this week to ask new City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) to fund an independent study the environmental impacts of Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project.

“I’ll start by asking for a half a million and hope that I will be joined by other delegates,” said James, following Tueday’s meeting.

James said the cash is needed to hire professional environmental engineers to study traffic, air quality, affordability and other elements of life in Brooklyn that will be affected by the $3.5-billion development that Bruce Ratner wants to build on 24 acres primarily within James’s district.

Such a study would be an independent review of the Ratner-produced enviromental impact statement, which is required to show how problems created by the project would be mitigated.

James said she was hopeful for the grant because Quinn stood up to Mayor Bloomberg last year in the fight against the West Side Stadium.

Though he has no formal authority over council decisions, Markowitz said he supported James’s bid for the study cash.

Such a study would carry no special weight, according to the project’s lead state agency.

“If they want to hire an independent consultant to review the impacts of the project, we would receive the comments as we receive any other comment throughout the scoping period,” said Empire State Development spokesperson Deborah Wetzel.

The ESDC is expected to release a final Environmental Impact Statement within a few weeks. .

©2006 Community Newspaper Group